Why have shops started offering poor choices of accessories?
Discussion
I've been out and about today to get a few things done and to escape the heat in the flat, and been into 3 different bike shops to look for a pair of road shoes, yet couldn't find any. Between all 3 covering a 30 mile line of the A1, all I could buy were Shimano, Bontrager and Specilaized, 1 shop only had 3 shoes in total, yet had 6 bikes in the rack between 4 and 6 grand!
I know the internet has taken off and put a lot of the smaller shops out of business or at least caused them to rethink their product lines, but it was a poor show in the accessory fronts. Shoes weren't the only things lacking either, pedals were lacking as well, with only a couple of choices of models, and clothing as well. That same shop that had 40k sitting around doing nothing only stocked Endura, no Fox or anything similar, and no, I don't expect them to stock Rapha or Condor etc.
Has the internet killed choice that much in this game? I can appreciate bikes being limited to certain makes for obvious tie ins, and sheer expense.
Taking the other sport I do, archery, I can walk into my local dealer, and have the choice between 4 makes of bow, at least 4 makes of arrow with about 30 odd models, and more manufacturers of accessories than I can name here.
Yes, I am prepared to pay full RRP for shoes in a shop, shoes are the one things I have to try on before buying, call me fussy if you like. Todays bill could have been £250 if I'd bought pedals as well, yet no one offered me the choice to even contemplate getting the wallet out.
I know the internet has taken off and put a lot of the smaller shops out of business or at least caused them to rethink their product lines, but it was a poor show in the accessory fronts. Shoes weren't the only things lacking either, pedals were lacking as well, with only a couple of choices of models, and clothing as well. That same shop that had 40k sitting around doing nothing only stocked Endura, no Fox or anything similar, and no, I don't expect them to stock Rapha or Condor etc.
Has the internet killed choice that much in this game? I can appreciate bikes being limited to certain makes for obvious tie ins, and sheer expense.
Taking the other sport I do, archery, I can walk into my local dealer, and have the choice between 4 makes of bow, at least 4 makes of arrow with about 30 odd models, and more manufacturers of accessories than I can name here.
Yes, I am prepared to pay full RRP for shoes in a shop, shoes are the one things I have to try on before buying, call me fussy if you like. Todays bill could have been £250 if I'd bought pedals as well, yet no one offered me the choice to even contemplate getting the wallet out.
Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff